"The Joint Venture SonyBMG: final ruling by the European Court of Justice"*
By judgment of 10 July 2008 in Case C-413/06 P, Bertelsmann and Sony Corporation of America v Impala (the “Judgment”), the Court of Justice (the “Court”) annulled the ruling by the Court of First Instance (the “CFI”). The CFI judgment had quashed the Commission’s decision adopted after an in-depth investigation to authorise the creation of a joint venture between Sony and BMG; (Case COMP/M.3333 – Sony/BMG) (the “Decision”).
The Judgment clarifies important procedural as well as substantive principles guiding the Commission’s merger control investigations. It caused a significant reversal of several aspects of the CFI judgment and upheld others. Key issues raised in the proceedings are the symmetry of the standard of